The total budget for the film is $250 million. Even by the standards of recent blockbusters, this is huge - even the high-tech Prometheus was 'only' about $130 million. However, the signs are that the film will stil make a profit. Most reviews are good, and in its first showings after the release on 20 July 2012, the film broke the record for box office takings in an opening weekend with over $158 million.

However, there is now some uncertainty, both over actual figures and how well the film will do in the next few weeks. This is because of the terrible murders in Colorado at a cinema showing the Dark Knight Rises premiere, by a young man who seemed to be obessed by the Batman story. Because of this, some cinemas stopped showing the film for a while, and others have felt it wouldn't look right to publish their takings from showing it, so it may be a while before we know how well it's doing.